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Town and County Planning Act 1998 PLANNING AND BUILDING CONTROL DIRECTORATE
Deceased 04/11/19 DOLGE19 01808 Town and County Planning Act 1998 PLANNING AND BUILDING CONTROL DIRECTORATE
Deceased 04/11/19 11:10 AM
Date -30/10/2009 Your Ref - Our Ref - 74011/Ramsey Tree Mast/DSO/SNB
For the attention of Mr Ian Brooks Dear Sir Arqiva Services Ltd
DIGITAL SWITCHOVER PROJECT
Existing electronic communications installation at land at Tower Farm, Ramsey, Isle of Man IM7 1AQ
SUBMISSION OF PLANNING APPLICATION
We refer to the dialogue in connection with the above between our Stephen Butler and your Ian Brooks. The proposals for this site are now finalised and we accordingly submit a planning application for the installation of electronic communications apparatus to facilitate the digital switchover of the television services broadcast from the above site. We enclose the following:
i. The requisite numbers of the completed planning application forms.
ii. The requisite numbers of an O.S. Site plan scale (1:1250/2500) reference20523-00- 004-05 showing the red line area.
iii. Drawing nos. P20523_50_100_M09_09; P20523_50_150_M09_09 and P20523_50_104_M09_09.
iv. The relevant land ownership certificate.
v. A cheque in the sum of £5.00 in respect of the appropriate fee. Arqiva, Unit 3, Edward Court, Altrincham Business Park, Altrincham, WA14 5GL www.arqiva.com
Arqiva Services Limited. Registered Office: Crawley Court, Winchester, Hampshire, SO21 2QA. Registered in England and Wales, No 3196207
vi. Design and Access Statement within this letter. vii. A certificate of ICNIRP compliance.
You will be familiar with the letter dated 31 July 2006 from the Communities and Local Government, Culture, Media and Sport and Trade and Industry Departments, which provides helpful advice about the Digital Switchover of the analogue terrestrial television broadcast network.
As you know, the Digital Switchover (DSO) Project is a major transformation project that will see the UK switchover to fully digital TV region by region between 2008 and 2012. Government and the industry regulator OFCOM are driving DSO. This is part of a wider and ongoing policy to improve and take maximum advantage of the many potential opportunities presented by electronic communications in all their diverse forms
The existing low powered Relay Station which provides important localised broadcast infilling, now needs to be altered to accommodate the additional apparatus required as part of the Digital Switchover Project. In this case the proposed works are minor as shown on the application drawings, but to assist, comprise the following:
Prior to the submission of this application, an assessment was made for the purposes of establishing the appropriate level of prior consultation that might be carried out. In doing this, we have used a similar approach as the best practice one adopted by the Mobile Operators. We have accordingly carried out a Traffic Light Rating to guide our consultation strategy which was green. In accordance with best practice, in this instance we only propose to rely on the normal consultations associated with the planning process.
The Isle of Man Strategic Plan does not make reference to the DSO project and we therefore encourage the Commission to have regard to the advice set out in the Government letter dated 31 July 2006. Like Infrastructure Policy 4 of the Isle of Man Strategic Plan, this encourages the reuse of existing sites, notwithstanding any designated area within which they may lie. The proposal therefore accords with this policy guidance.
The additional apparatus proposed has been confined to the minimum that is required to facilitate DSO. The design and appearance of the apparatus is necessarily guided by the technical requirements of DSO and the existing apparatus being added to. Having regard to the installation as a whole, these minor works will not significantly alter the appearance of the existing broadcast facility and should therefore be acceptable.
The Government clearly advises that material considerations include the significance of the development as part of a national network. The site is a low powered relay site that provides terrestrial television services across the Ramsey and surrounding areas. Network considerations also guide the shape and form of the development proposed.
The new apparatus has been confined to what is operationally required for DSO. This is important to Arqiva to maintain the overall costs of the project, which would be unnecessarily high if the works were over specified.
As the proposals involve the installation and alteration of apparatus on an existing mast, the layout, design and appearance is necessarily guided by that and the associated the new antennas must be compatible with both the digital technology and the antennas adopted for the permanent works should not result in any material change to the existing level of activity and traffic already generated through the lawful use of the site as part of a national television broadcast network.
To conclude, the development is in accordance with the relevant policy framework and we respectfully request the planning permission sought. In view of the important nature of this project and the fact that the Isle of Man is planned to switchover later this year, we hope you can take account of the Government advice that applications relating to this project should be treated as a matter of PRIORITY and that delegated powers should be used where possible. We trust everything is in order, but if you do require any further information or clarification, please do not hesitate to contact Stephen N Butler on 01619274203
Yours faithfully
Arqiva, Unit 3, Edward Court, Altrincham Business Park, Altrincham, WA14 5GL www.arqiva.com
Stephen N Butler Asset Surveyor North Region [email protected] Direct tel 01619274203 Direct fax 01619274222
Date $-30 / 10 / 2009$ Your Ref - Our Ref - 74011/Ramsey Tree Mast/DSO/SNB
For the attention of Mr Ian Brooks Dear Sir Arqiva Services Ltd
The Ramsey tree mast was built in accordance with the agreed planning application and came into service in June of this year. The use of a tree mast is an unusual design for broadcast structures (it has been more common with telcom structures) so in this respect arqiva have not had much experience with this type of design and any issues arising from their use. Before this mast came into service there would have been a very limited amount of testing since coming on line a problem has come to light regarding the receive signal from the Jurby station.
The network plan for the Isle of Man proved to be very difficult due to lack of available spectrum (mainly due to competing requirements from mainland UK and the Republic of Ireland) and extenstive use of the lower part of Band V was necessary. This entailed that the receive frequencies at Ramsey were on adjacent channels to the transmit frequencies, on a normal mast type structure with careful siting of the transmit and receive antennas this does not usually present a problem. However a tree mast because of its design the usual isolation between transmit and receive could not be achieved (because of its construction). This has led to some very serious quality of service issues at Ramsey (which also feeds the low power relay at Kimmeragh).
A temporary arrangement mounted on the roof of the cabin has proved to be more acceptable regarding quality of service and a more permanent solution is sought by using a short pole (approximately 3 m above ground level) mounted from the cabin, the intention would be to use a pair a 'yagi' antennas on a suitable pole, these antennas look more like standard domestic yagi antennas
Arqiva, Unit 3, Edward Court, Altrincham Business Park, Altrincham, WA14 5GL www.arqiva.com
used on viewers' roofs etc. The receive antennas need to be mounted at this height to avoid ground reflections and the possibility of people in the field walking in front of the antennas 'blocking' the signal [IT SHOULD BE NOTED THESE ANTENNAS ARE RECEIVE ONLY AND ARE NOT ACTIVE (RADIATING) ANTENNAS]. This should 'solve' the quality of service issues with this site.
We trust everything is in order, but if you do require any further information or clarification, please do not hesitate to contact Stephen N Butler on 0161 927 4203
Yours faithfully
Barb
ARQIVA
Arqiva, Unit 3, Edward Court, Altrincham Business Park, Altrincham, WA14 5GL www.arqiva.com
Arqiva Services Limited, Registered Office: Crawley Court, Winchester, Hampshire, SO21 2QA Registered in England and Wales No 3196207
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